This is a new feature of adamriggins.com. I plan on making several of these quick video tutorials on how to do some of the most basic actions on your iPhone. If you know of anyone who has one and wants to know how to do some basic functions, point them in this direction!
For this first installment, I am showing you how to take a screenshot with your iPhone. Enjoy!
Released recently for the iPhone was Rock Band (iTunes link), the game that has brought music nerds together for the last couple of years. Being the RB addict that I am, I immediately purchased it from the iTunes Store for it’s very modest asking price of $9.99. Being so used to holding a guitar and playing it like that, how would an iPhone version of the game hold up? Would the songs be ones I had actually heard of?
Here are my thoughts on it.
The first thing you notice it that this is Rock Band. From the sound effects in the menu to the graphics, this is the game you have played on other systems. The only difference is that now it is on a smaller screen and you are using your thumbs to tap the screen rather than pressing buttons on a plastic guitar.
There is the World Tour, otherwise known as the story mode, where you go to different cities, play a set, then unlock other cities.
Once you select your song, you can then select which instrument you would like to play: bass, guitar, drums, or vocals:
My only complaint here is that you can’t select which character represents you. It doesn’t really matter in the game, but I would like to NOT be the girl, being that I usually play the guitar in the game.
Now, for what matters most, the gameplay. Here is a video of me playing “Everlong”, by Foo Fighters. As you will see, and like I said before, it IS Rock Band (click the “HQ” for best quality):
One thing I quickly noticed is that even though “vocals” is an option, you don’t actually sing into your iPhone, in which I was a little disappointed. Instead, you have to press on the screen based on the pitch that is being sung. Hard to explain, but here is what it looks like:
Trust me, it makes more sense when you actually do it.
So how does it play? The feel of it is great. I have big hands, but I didn’t really have a problem accurately pressing the right buttons when needed. Another thing to note is that just like in the console version of the game, you can tilt the phone up to activate the “Overdrive” mode. If you have played on the Consoles, you know what I mean.
There was no lag whatsoever, the graphics are great, the song selection is what you would expect from a Rock Band game, and extra songs are available for purchase if you so desire.
I have not had a chance to try out the multiplayer mode yet, but from what I have read, you can play against people you connect with on Facebook or over Bluetooth. I would love to test that out, but as of now, I don’t know anyone else that has the game.
The common complaint I have heard is that the game itself costs $10, and for me, that doesn’t seem like too much to ask for a game that will do all that this one will do. It comes with about 20 songs to play around with, 4 instruments to play them with, and 3 difficulty levels to master. That is a lot of bang for the buck (or ten) if you ask me.
Overall, I have to say that this is the most fun in a game that I have experienced thus far on my iPhone. It’s pretty awesome to have an app that will let you see a million faces… and rock them all (anyone?)
Rock Band is $9.99 and is available now from the iTunes Store.
Gallery:
I will start off by saying this. The auto-correction feature of the iPhone is brilliant. It is not the easiest of things to be able to type on a small keyboard, so anyone that is trying to type at a decent speed is going to be prone to making mistakes. Luckily, Apple thought of that. Most of the time when typing, I don’t even have to worry about my spelling because I know the iPhone will take care of it.
Most of the time.
There are certain words that are not corrected, and for the life of me, I can’t seem to learn on my own to stop making the mistake. The one that comes to mind is the word “for”. That word is used quite often in everyday conversation, but almost every time I type it on the iPhone, I fat-finger it and hit the “i” instead of the “o”, thus giving me the word “fir“. The worst part of it is that the iPhone doesn’t even correct that word.
Dear iPhone, I will probably not ever need to type the word “fir”, so please just correct it to “for“. I’m obviously incapable of doing it on my own. Pretty please?
What about you? Does your phone correct your spelling? Are there words you just can’t seem to stop fat-fingering? Let me know in the comments!
Tweetie might just be the absolute best iPhone Twitter app out there, but the one thing that drives a lot of people crazy is how it handles Retweets (RT’s) by default. Out of the box, a RT done in Tweetie will look like this:
My friend asked me if I wanted a frozen banana, I said “No, but I want a regular banana later, so … yeah”. (via @mitchhedberg)
EVERY OTHER Twitter applications would make it look like this:
RT @mitchhedberg: My friend asked me if I wanted a frozen banana, I said “No, but I want a regular banana later, so … yeah”.
It’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but at the same time, I have never understood why Tweetie did it that way. Well, there is a way to flip a switch and fix that problem. Here is how you do it:
1. Go to your Settings
2. Scroll all the way down to “Tweetie” (and tap it, of course)
3. Press “Advanced”
4. Press “Experimental”
5. Turn that first option to “ON”
That’s it, you’re all set. Now you are like the rest of society as far as how your RT’s look.
Enjoy!
Imagine the scenario… You are at Best Buy shopping for that new wireless router. You find the one that you want, but you wonder if it is any less expensive online. You whip out your iPhone, head to Amazon.com, and try to find it. The only problem is that there are several wireless routers that are very similar, so it’s hard to make a fair comparison.
Enter RedLaser.
RedLaser (iTunes link) is an app that will scan any UPC/Barcode on a product and almost instantly give you the listing on Amazon as well as other online merchants. And, since it is based on the UPC of that product, it will be an exact match. Here’s how it works in pictures:
First of all, there is the app. Fancy arrow, huh?
Once in the program, scan your barcode:
Then, almost instantly (and I really mean this… maybe 2 seconds) you will get an Amazon listing, followed by Google results:
Clicking any of the results will take you to that merchant’s website to buy it.
RedLaser is a very simple app, but it makes comparative shopping so much easier!
RedLaser (website)
One big complaint from many iPhone users that rely on Gmail as their email service of choice is the limitation that the smallest interval of automatically checking your email is 15 minutes. Sure, for most people, that is fine, but for those of us that like instant-gratification, it is a bit annoying. And, until Apple and Google allow push email inherently, you have very few options to get that instant push satisfaction.
I have found one option that actually works quite well. GPush (iTunes link), available in the iTunes App Store for $.99, does one very simple thing, but it does it well. Basically, you enter in your Gmail account information, and then whenever anyone sends you an email, you instantly get a push notification on your iPhone:
At that point, you can go into your Mail app and check it. The icon for GPush will display a badge that shows you how many unread messages you have in your inbox (lower-right corner above the dock):
As soon as you read the actual emails, that badge will instantly update.
That’s really it. In my testing, there was a delay of maybe 2-3 seconds between Gmail (web) showing the email and the actual notification coming through. This app is very simple, but it does it’s one function perfectly. There were some issues initially with the current version, hence the large amount of negative reviews in iTunes, but they seem to have fixed it completely. Plus, hey, it’s $.99, which is basically free!
Until there is an official solution, this might just be the best way to go.
I have decided that I want to learn how to create applications for the Mac and iPhone. How do you learn to do that? Well, I got a book:
I’m not sure what I will create, but the thought that I will know how to make something is pretty exciting. There are so many great apps on the iPhone, I have a feeling it will be hard to some up with something new. Let me know of any requests! (I’m not getting too far ahead of myself, am I??)
I recently purchased an app for my iPhoe that does one thing and one thing VERY well… it makes fart noises. That’s right, I can touch the screen of my phone, and the sound of righteous gas will come lofting from the speakers.
The app, appropriately called “iFart Mobile”, is only $.99 in the iTunes store. Once launched, you can select from a wide variety of different kinds of flatulence. Once you select it, you press the “Fart Now” button:
That’s not all. You can also record your own sounds, set the phone to make a fart noise when it’s moved, and also “go off” after a certain amount of time.
All that for $.99.
Now, you might be saying “Wow, Adam, really? A fart machine on your phone?” Heck yes, that’s exactly right. My buddies and I cannot stop laughing at the sounds this thing makes. In fact, I have a feeling that I will be 99 years old and still laughing at the sound of someone passing gas. Seriously, this little app will have you in stitches!
This past Tuesday, Apple gave a sneak peak at the new iPhone software coming out this summer. One of the new features of the software is the ability to copy-and-paste, a much-anticipated feature of the iPhone.
Look at what they were using to demo it:
In case you don’t get it, “Oceanic Flight 815” is the flight they took on LOST that ultimately crashed on the island. Also, if you didn’t get it, go watch LOST and get hooked like the rest of us.
I have been playing around with the iPhone app Flickit (iTunes link) for a few days now, and I have to say that as far as uploading your pictures to Flickr goes, this is the easiest way to do it. This free app is not only a very beautiful app, but it’s ridiculously easy to use.
First, you select from where you want to get your picture(s):
Then, you can add details to it, such as name, which set it belongs in, geolocation info, etc.
Once you add all the photos you want to add, you click the upload button.
And, as you would guess, it uploads all of the pictures in the batch.
If you use Flickr and have an iPhone, this is your must-have app for uploading on the go. It looks good, works well, and best of all, it’s FREE!
Flickit (iTunes)
